2»'« S. No 60., Fkb. 21. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



155 



give them the clze or figure which they have." — Grew's 

 Cormologia Sacra. 



" On high hill top I saw a stateh' frame, 

 An hundred cubits high by just assize, 

 With hundred pillars." 



Spenser's Vision of Bellay. 



" Objects near our view are thought greater than those 

 of a larger size, that are more remote." — Locke. 



The above words have brought me to consider 

 the probable derivation of scissors, which some 

 say is from ccedo, some incido, and others scindo, 

 Johnson has, I think, given a clue to the most likely 

 of all derivations, in one way in which he spells 

 the word, viz. sizers, as used by Tusser ; from 

 whose writings is the following quotation : — 



" A buttrice and pincers, a hammer and naile, 

 An apron and sizers for head and for tail." 



This mode of spelling sizers at once denomi- 

 nates their use. Shakspeare and Prior use scis- 

 sars, but Tusser is the oldest writer. He wrote 

 about 1532, if not before ; and Shakspeare was 

 not born till 1564, and Prior till 1664. Sizers is, 

 I believe, the oldest mode of spelling. Henri. 



(2°'' S. iii. 28. 93.) 



I cannot accept J. C. J.'s law in the matter of 

 this neological abortion, nor assent to his reasoning. 



As a purist, he may be right that Greek ter- 

 minations should not be tacked to words of Latin 

 etymology, nor Latin terminations to Saxon de- 

 rivatives ; but as he admits this abuse to be be- 

 yond remedy, I will pass at once to the real 

 question, — which is. Whether an adjective can 

 convey the meaning of the verb from which it 

 directly derives, when disjoined from a preposi- 

 tion inseparable from the verb itself. The analogy 

 of Latin does not hold. That is a language of 

 inflections and declensions, tenses and cases, which 

 perpetually supersede the necessity of prepositions 

 and auxiliary verbs. Ours is a language entirely 

 dependent on them. 



" You may rely the truth of the fact " is, for 

 want of the necessai'y preposition, a sentence 

 without meaning, — incomplete in its construction 

 — and therefore nonsense. " The truth of the 

 fact is reliable " must be equally unmeaning, in- 

 complete and nonsensical. 



" The ending -ble, or able," has"" the force of a 

 passive infinitive. Valuable, admirable, tolerable, 

 &c. — to be valued, to be admired, to be tolerated, 

 &c. Reliable is therefore " to be relied " — not 

 " to be relied upon." You may just as well omit 

 the verb as the preposition. Their union is in- 

 dispensable to produce a meaning. 



" The mind may be acted upon by various influences." 



" A man may be imposed upon by knaves." 



According to this theory of licence, to omit the 

 preposition in newly invented adjectives, 



" The mind is actable by various influences," 



" A man is imposeable by knaves," 



would be modes of expression just aa proper and 

 intelligible. 



J. C. J. asserts that " ' Credo ' does not mean 

 ' to believe ' at all." How does he translate " Coelo 

 tonantem credidimus Jovem regnare ? " It means, 

 he says, " to entrust," " to commit." No doubt, 

 that is one of its meanings — and, in connexion 

 with the dative which it governs, conveys and ex- 

 presses the full force of that preposition which, in 

 English, must be interposed bodily. 



" Quid credas, aut cui credas ?" writes Terence. 

 There are the two senses in juxta-position. There 

 is nothing omitted, or left to be supplied, in the 

 "cui credas?" It is exactly equivalent to the 

 English " On whom can you rely ? " 



No writer with pretensions to a correct style 

 has hitherto made, or (as I conceive) ever will 

 make use of this newspaper slip-slop, which, " de- 

 formed, unfinished, half made up," has not even 

 the apology of supplying a deficiency in the lan- 

 guage, — but thrusts its mutilated stump into the 

 place of " trustworthy," a well authorised English 

 word, which signifies all that "reliable" is in- 

 tended, — but awkwardly fails, — to convey. P. 



" THANKS BE TO THEE, O LOBD. 



(2"'i S. iii. 98.) 



Me. Ellaoombe, in making his demurrer to 

 my Note, had forgotten the Query, — the origin 

 of the verse (not suffrage) sometimes sung after 

 the Gospel has been ended, — which is quite an- 

 other point from the verse sung after the Gospel 

 is named. I will therefore repeat my answer in 

 another form. The latter verse, which was or- 

 dered in King Edward's book. Bishop Cosin sug- 

 gests, was probably omitted by the negligence of 

 the printer. There is no doubt of it. 



1. The fourth Council of Toledo, a.d. 633. 

 Can. XII., forbade that, 



" Laudes post Apostolum decantuntur, prius qu?im Evan- 

 gelium prajdicetur; dum canones praecipiunt post apos- 

 tolum non laudes sed Evangelium annuntiari." 



And this decree was made in consequence of the 

 Eoman order for singing a Gradual between the 

 Epistle and Gospel. In the English Church the 

 Gradual was sung by two choristers " in pulpito" 

 in the middle of the choir, or upon the steps of 

 the sanctuary, and was followed by the Verse, and 

 the Prose Tract or Sequence sung by the whole 

 choir. The Gospel was then sung always on the 

 north side : on Sundays and certain feasts " in 

 pulpito ;" at other times "ad gradum chori." In 

 King Edward's Service-Book the Gradual, &c. 



